Whilst the Green Belt political panto ploughs on in the local papers , here at WirralLeaks we provide you with a special cut out and keep report from ‘The Prof’ which we think is the definitive word on the matter. There is a summary of his findings at the start. But for those who want to be better informed about the Green Belt debate there is a full analysis.

The council Green Belt ‘release plan’ covers ~8 square miles or 4,900 acres.

This land could support 71,000 homes (at typical NW density of 14.6 dw / acre).

But the government / council housing need forecast is for 12,000 houses.

So the GB land fraction required is only ~17% of the council ‘release plan’.

However based on ACTUAL population and household number changes in
the last decade and allowing for lower economic growth post Brexit and a slowdown in UK life expectancy improvement, probable new housing need is 200 to 300 houses per annum NOT 800.

So the land required would be only ~6% of the GB ‘release plan’ in that case.

But the council says it has identified Brown Field sites for 2,400 houses and will build there first. If so the fraction of land required from the GB ‘release plan’ would be only ~3%

The council has deliberately exaggerated the ‘Green Belt Problem’ and caused great distress to many Wirral residents for purely political reasons. After the Green Belt review in December 2018 they will claim that they have ‘heroically’ saved most of the land on their GB ‘release plan’… land that was never needed in the first place.

Even so some sites listed will draw the short straw since building on Green Belt is more profitable than building on Brown Field sites for the developers. The council will gain from higher rates from Green Belt luxury homes. Very few ‘affordable houses’ will be built because of the ‘viability test’ loophole. The developers gain; the politicians gain; but what about the Wirral residents who elected them who are routinely treated with contempt ?

Wirral Housing Need Forecasts 2014 – 2032

& Green Belt Land Requirements: Fake News

1 Summary
The government has told Wirral Council that they must build 800 homes per annum or 12,000 in total over the period 2014 to 2032. Despite having granted planning permission already for ~ 16,000 dwellings, mainly on brown field sites, the Council have decided to seek out landowners and developers ready to ‘release’ Green Belt land for housing development. This has led to 50 sites being identified (Figure 4). This land amounts to ~8 square miles of Wirral countryside. Both government and council have ignored the existing ~6,000 empty properties on the Wirral. The government and the ‘land bankers’ such as Peel Holdings have been blamed by the Council for this catastrophic situation. However the Council commissioned Housing Study of 2016 found a housing requirement of 835 to 1,235 units per annum. In fact the same complex methodology underlies both housing estimates. It is at heart still based on guesswork and produces a remarkably wide range of forecasts. The politicians can find almost any number that suits them politically. In the case of the Council this was a desire to promote their miraculous economic growth policies for Wirral.
Given the uncertainties a better approach is to consider actual recent and longer term population and household growth rates and growth rate ranges and base forecasts on these with possible adjustments for general economic growth prospects e.g Brexit effects. We do that below and find housing build rates of 200 to 300 per annum, not 800. At this level the amount of Green Belt needed (ignoring the brown belt land available) would be only ~6% of the land targeted by the Council for development release. At 800 homes per annum the fraction of Green Belt needed would only be ~17% of the Council plan. Wirral residents are being fed highly distressing fake news and alternative facts by the Council. We should all be asking why? Quo bono? Who benefits? It is certainly not Wirral residents.2 The Wirral SHMA and Housing Needs Study 2016

This study was commissioned by Wirral Council and completed by the Nathan Litchfield Consultancy. It is 263 pages long. It uses approved data from government sources and approved analysis methods commonly used by other local authorities. It freely references work by other groups which is commendable. It fully reports its assumptions and considers over a dozen alternative scenarios. It is a comprehensive, workman-like job. Sadly government departments and councils do not always fully report or understand what their consultants tell them about the uncertainties in modelling and forecasting. Quite often the politician can take almost any number that suits him from such a report. Let’s start with the report output and the 13 scenarios shown in Figure 1.

We see that the forecast of houses needed by 2032 varies from 3,400 to 22,200 (the most extreme scenario of building 46,530 ‘affordable’ houses has not been considered here as the report drops it). This range covers a factor of 6.6 X. The dotted line is the 800 houses per annum target imposed by government (but also compatible with Litchfield’s final proposal to the council). The thick line shows the result using the actual Wirral annual delivery of 383 houses per annum in the recent decade.

FIGURE 1

The 383 figure reflects recent reality in terms of Wirral demographics, economic migration and the state of the house building market. If forecasters, councils and governments insist on very different numbers for housing growth they should be required to show cause…particularly if the forecast impacts negatively on the quality of life of large numbers of Wirral residents and threatens the loss of irreplaceable high quality farm land and core biodiversity refuges in the Green Belt. Despite the fancy talk of ‘evidence based’ planning by governments the fact is much of what passes for analysis is guess work often based on unstable base data as we will see. Forecasts are often politics based not evidence based.

3 Wirral Population & Household Numbers History
The starting point of the ‘official’ methodologies used for housing needs forecasting are the future demographics of the area population. If these are wrong then all that follows in terms of ‘economic policy uplifts’ and the rest, is pointless. The official government (ONS) historic data on Wirral population changes from 1990 onwards has been remarkably unstable and subject to regular ‘adjustments’. This does not give confidence in the official data nor in forecasts based on it even before imaginative economic scenarios are appended to the basic demographics. Figure 2 shows the population history from 1991 to 2011 before ‘adjustments’ were made to make some consistent sense of the data. In 1990 the population was about 336,000. By 2010 population had apparently fallen to around 309,000 a decline of ~0.45 % per annum overall. Decline slowed to -0.31 % after 2005. By contrast the ONS forecasts for 2012 to 2035 projected a growth of +0.15% per annum.

FIGURE 2

At the 2011 census the embarrassing historical numbers were ‘uplifted’ to reconcile with those of the census. The varying ONS forecasts from various, almost successive years are concerning. Looking at 2008 base data is interesting. 2008 to 2012 we are told was a period of ‘national recession and economic stagnation’. On that basis population was projected to fall long term! Later the 2010 base rate was adjusted to correct for the census gap. By 2012 the base numbers were adjusted upwards but the end point in 2032 was the same! These are a remarkable set of estimates and forecasts for all the wrong reasons. Here are the various ‘adjustments’ made after 2010.

Start year Population 2032 Population
ONS 2008 base 2008 309,000 304,000
ONS 2010 base 2010 310,000 329,000
ONS 2012 base 2012 320,000 330,000
The reader should note the apparent sensitivity of the Wirral population to economic conditions. Current UK growth is still very modest. Borrowing and debt levels are very high. Interest rates are very low but beginning to increase. A possibly hard Brexit will further dampen growth as the government acknowledges. Please note: none of this is built into the current forecasts of Wirral housing demand and the forecasts used for job growth and so on in the 2016 report were already optimistic. They assume that Wirral Council’s ‘growth stimulation’ policies will work. History from 1990 suggests otherwise.

Nevertheless the forecast is for a major turnaround in the 20 year decay of Wirral’s population. Even if we accept this forecast (which will be challenged in section 4) note also that the population in 2032 (~330,000) has not yet recovered to the level of 1991 (~336,000). Nevertheless it seems we need to build an additional 800 houses per annum until 2032 to house a supposed additional ~10,000 people. By 2015 the government figures for Wirral had changed again (see below).

4. Forecasts of Population & Households to 2032
The core basis of the Wirral SHMA and Housing Needs Study 2016 are the local demographics. If these are wrongly forecast everything else falls. As we just saw the historical data is all over the place but we must try. Figure 3 shows the reconciled (final?) population history of Wirral and the supposed household numbers. We will work with these since the council and government do so. ONS Estimated Resident Population tables to mid-2016 tell us that the population in mid 2011 was 319,800 souls and in mid 2016 was 321,200 souls. This gives us a growth rate of 280 persons per annum.
Household numbers in 2011 were 141,000 and in mid 2014 142,400. Note that from 1991 to 2001 there was no growth in household numbers. So HH size in 2011 was 2.27, in 2014 2.255. Recently HH size has been falling at ~0.005 per annum. At that rate by 2032 HH size would have fallen to 2.17 persons. However ONS ‘Families and Households 2017’ shows that across England from 2013 to 2017 HH size stagnated. HH size change is related to increased life expectancy which has been increasing for many decades.

However the ONS Human Mortality Database just published shows a massive drop in life expectancy growth rate (2006 / 2011 12.9 weeks per annum for women down to 1.2 weeks per annum in 2011 / 2016; 2006 /2011 17.3 weeks per annum for men down to 4.2 weeks per annum in 2011 / 2016). The decline may be related to austerity and reduced funding of social care, etc. We will look at two scenarios. First that HH size continues to decline to 2032, to 2.17 persons. Second, that HH size stagnates at 2.23 persons.
How will population develop? Let’s look at actual overall trends for the recent decade and for the two latest census periods. The 2011 – 2016 growth rate we found was 280 persons per annum. The (reconciled) 2001 data puts population at ~316,000 and at 2016 as 321,200. The longer period growth rate was 347 persons per annum. We see that population growth has decelerated in recent years reflecting poor economic conditions.
Given that the government expects somewhat lower economic growth for some years related to Brexit we take the lower growth rate. Population growth 2014 to 2032 would then be 18 x 280 = 5040 persons. Population in 2014 was 321,200. Population in 2032 would be 326,240. Using stagnated HH size at 2.23 then gives us 146,296 HH versus 142,400 in 2014. Increase in HH is 3895 in total or 216.4 houses per annum. If HH size drops to 2.17, which seems unlikely, this would give us a need for 441 houses per annum. Note that the mean of 329 compares well with the actual historic delivered rate of 383 reported in the Wirral SHMA Study.
These results follow from a simple model based on actual trends and experienced trend ranges in Wirral population and households plus a few assumptions about general economic prospects over the next decade. Accuracy cannot be claimed but the housing requirement is only 27% to (an unlikely) 55% of the official target. The official housing forecast models are far more detailed, dissecting out local demographics and then adding back in council growth policies, net migration, job growth and housing market factors. But as we saw in Figure 1 this leads us to a wide range of complex but guesswork based scenarios giving a very wide range of numerical forecasts. You might well think:
’ never mind the quality feel the width’ …but I could not possibly comment.

FIGURE 3

Wirral Population & HH ONS Estimates 2015

Is this perhaps unfair? Let’s take a key example from the Wirral SHMA & Housing Need Study 2016. Page 137 presents Table 8.2 which lists their key modelling assumptions for the growth forecasts. It starts with the basic population and two estimates:

‘2012 based SNPP 10,140 population growth 2014 – 2032.’
‘10 year long term Migration Scenario 66 population growth.’
‘Higher of the 2 approaches represents the population for the demographic starting point’.

Funnily enough if we take the scenarios mean we get 5103 compared with our 5040… but the low growth scenario is ignored. They use the 10,140 growth figure which it is said equates to 11,830 new houses. Various ‘uplift’ factors are then applied giving a 757 houses per annum requirement which is further ‘uplifted’ for Council growth plans, etc, giving ‘Fully Objectively Assessed Needs’ of 875 to 1233 houses per annum…higher than the ‘wicked’ government imposed 800 target of 2018.

5. Green Belt Land Requirements
The Strategic Land Availability Study is a necessary part of the preparation of the Local Plan and part of this is a Review of Green Belt land. In July 2018 Wirral Council published a map showing 50 green belt sites across Wirral said to be available for ‘release’ for housing development according to the landowners / developers. The interesting question is how does this area of land relate to the ‘official’ housing needs target which must be met by the Council i.e 12,000 new houses by 3032.
We now look at the land area involved and typical housing densities to answer this question. Using the NLS online measurement tools and 25 inch OS maps the total land area involved is ~7.6 square miles and ~4864 acres. Figure 4 shows the map of intended GB ‘release’ sites. The square of 3 miles X 3 miles shows the rearranged green belt sites which fill it well. Imagine a new urban township 3 miles X 3 miles square on the Wirral.

FIGURE 4 Intended Green Belt Council Release Sites

The DCLG Land Use Statistics (England) 2010 provides actual housing densities by region. For the NW densities have ranged from 22 to 49 dwellings per hectare in recent years with a tendency to increase. The mean is 36 dph or 14.57 dwellings per acre. At this density the GB release plan land could support 14.57 x 4864 = 70,870 houses.
The government / council required total is 12,000 houses. So the GB land proposed for development ‘release’ by the council is 5.9 X more than the land needed to meet the target (assuming that no houses are built on brown field land).Only 17% of that Green Belt land would be required. Readers might consider this a little strange. Is the Wirral Council incapable of doing a few simple calculations to support their housing planning strategy? Surely they employ professional planning officers at considerable expense to us?
I suggest that the GB land overkill is part of a deliberate political strategy. First, announce that a huge area of Green Belt is needed to meet the ‘government’s housing targets’. Second, encourage residents to ‘complain’ through local Labour Party organised resident meetings and a hysterical press campaign: those to blame being the Conservative government for trying to ‘subvert local democracy’ and Peel Holdings for ‘land banking’. Third, hold the official Consultation on the plans in September 2018.
Fourth, in December 2018 after the review, announce that the Council has listened carefully to residents’ concerns and thanks to the Council’s heroic efforts 83% of the GB sites on the release plan have been ‘saved’. Fifth, win more votes in the next election.
However the above calculations start from the official housing needs estimate of 800 x15 = 12,000.We have shown that this is a very unrealistic target taking into account actual Wirral history, population numbers, household numbers, lack of economic growth prospects and the strong slowdown in life expectancy improvement. A more likely housing requirement over the plan period is 216.4 x 18 = 3895. If we use this number the fraction of GB land on the ‘release’ plan actually required would be 5.4%.
Note also that the Council has now identified 91 brown field sites where 2,400 houses could be built. But this is 62% of our estimated 3895 requirement. If these sites are used the Green Belt needed would be just 2% of the proposed Council ‘release’ plan.
Nevertheless somebody is going to draw the short straw and lose their adjacent Green Belt. After all there is much more money to be made by not bothering with the large area of Brown Belt land available on Wirral which costs more to develop. The developers make more profit from Green Belt. The Council gets higher rates from the Green Belt luxury houses they build. Very few ‘affordable’ houses will be built because of the ‘viability’ test loophole. Surely Wirral residents are being badly misled and treated with contempt by those who were elected to protect their interests… to the benefit of land speculators and the politicians. Politicians come and go but once Green Belt land is gone it is gone forever.Enough is enough. It is time to fight back.Professor (retired) D P Gregg: Background in mathematical modelling, statistics and operational research. For fifteen years served as visiting professor with a leading northern university. Collaborated with several universities in Europe and the USA and led EU funded industrial projects with other large companies. For several decades led a forecasting research / decision science, internal consultancy group for a large, well known multinational company. Advised senior management and the board on tactical and strategic business planning.

Now that Wallasey MP Angela Eagle has withdrawn from the Labour leadership contest we thought we’d take some time out to reflect on what has to have been the most misbegotten overthrow attempt since Lambert Simnel was a pretender to the throne of Henry VII.

Wirral Leaks suggests there are 3 reasons why it all may have gone horribly wrong for Our Ange :

Leadership

Whilst Her Ladyship thinks she’d make a great Brown Owl for the village hall Brownie pack was anyone ever convinced that Eagle would be a great leader of the Labour Party?. Now as you know we’re very much from the school of thought that if you want to tell people the truth you make them laugh otherwise they will kill you. Therefore we think the Dead Ringers skit on Radio 4 absolutely nailed Eagle’s leadership qualities. From her will she ? , won’t she ? , who cares? -just bloody get on with it! leadership challenge to her awkward, faltering media appearances listen here from 16:40 on as Our Ange’s entire campaign is summed up in a single sketch:

“I may sound like a nervous badger trying to cross a busy motorway but I’m ruthless. Dead ruthless. I’m hard as nails. If I want something I’ll take it …then I put it back . I apologise for taking it and cry when the police are called.”

2. Victimhood

Threats and abuse are never to be tolerated but if there’s one thing we’ve learned from observing politicos (and especially local ones) is that they sure know how to play the victim.

Now we don’t know (nor does anyone) who the perpetrator was or what the motivation behind the brick through the window of the shared premises where Our Ange’s constituency office is based but Ange herself was very quick to lay the blame at the door of aggrieved local Corbynistas. Although listening to her you ‘d think it was Wirral’s Kristallnacht . Now we’ve never attended a Wallasey CLP meeting and it’s highly unlikely we’d ever be invited so we don’t know what went on between party members.

However what we do know is that if but if you mislead those constituency members and tell them that everything is fine and dandy and that you support Jeremy Corbyn 100% and then next thing they know you’re mounting a leadership challenge and calling him fit to burn then it shouldn’t come as a surprise that you’re constituency members feel they’ve been misled and are a bit miffed.

And so after all that – not only did you not become Labour leader your constituency members wanted a vote to deselect you as their MP. As a result we now understand that the whole of the Wallasey Constituency Labour Party has now been suspended by the Labour Party hierarchy. Way to go Ange!.

3. Branding

“Angela” – the brand was launched at an ill-fated press conference held to announce her leadership challenge where all the leading main political commentators had dashed off to something much more interesting – Andrea Leadsom’s withdrawal from the Tory leadership contest (oh the irony!).

The pink banners ,the pink flag, the pink jacket, the pink lipstick. More TV daytime host than a potential head of state “Angela” seemed to have hired the same team responsible for the PR car-crash that was Harriet Harman’s pink battle bus from the last General Election campaign. You’d think they’d realise that it takes more to woo women voters than the colour pink. A marketing guru overdosing on frappucinos must have been paid all kinds of crazy money to come up with the genius idea :” I know let’s go for pink. Girlies like pink- a lighter , less threatening shade of red”.So much for making much of her female credentials it’s like feminism never happened.

Might we suggest that to keep the attention of the media and musical theatre fans she should should have gone for the full “Think Pink” production number with the built in catchphrase : “Red is dead, Blue is through, Green obscene…..”

And so like Alice Cooper in a polyester suit screaming ” I Wanna Be Elected” the bullshit fiesta continues with Andy Burnham flattering Wirral with his presence this week backed with singers from the same hymn book – Sister Stooge.
” We are family ,I got all my sistas with me” sing Labour mavens Ali McGovern and Mags Greenwood as they join Andy in setting up shop in Hoylake’s Holiday Inn – and setting Wirral to rights…… starting with Arrowe Park Hospital .

Considering that one of Frankenfield’s pet peeves is that “Arrowe Park Hospital is ungovernable” it is curious that he wasn’t involved in this particular media assault – but then the Birkenhead MP can act like a petulant diva when it comes to sharing the stage with another local MP – and particularly someone with such lovely long eyelashes as Andy Burnham! As Her Ladyship said : ” I can only hope he was an inspiration to prospective West Wirral MP Margaret Greenwood – that woman is clearly a stranger to mascara”.

Arrowe Park Hospital may be the local battleground where Labour politicians have chosen to set up their shock troops but it seems to us that they really need to get their battle plan sorted beforehand .Conflicting PR stunts made it seem like a case of left hand meet, er , left hand……… On the very same day Burnham and co were railing against the creeping privatisation of the NHS ( accelerated by the last Labour government but Andy doesn’t let facts get in the way of feigned outrage) Labour council leader Power Boy Pip was announcing a successful bid for government money to enable the private sector to play a major role in a “new model health care for Wirral” !

Pip heralded this further contribution to the dismantling of the NHS with this glorious piece of gobbledygook:

“We aim to test, evidence and disseminate the opportunities to be gained from an integrated approach with aligned incentives to manage improved outcomes for patients.” CLICK HERE

We believe these are the weasel words which are the smoke and mirrors ultimately leading the people of Wirral to sleepwalk into the slow death of the NHS.

Of course the other part of this “integrated approach” is Wirral Council itself and particularly it’s social services. So we need to ask ourselves how has Adult Social Services (ASS) in particular been doing since the publication of damning report after damning report which lead to…… well, not much actually. From what we hear it’s very much “business unusual” with a deeply entrenched bullying culture (some parts of the department being subject to Marshall Law) and cronyism which simply Beyga’s belief……..
Under such circumstances it comes as no su prise to read claims that, in an aim reduce costs ASS, are taking “short cuts” when it comes to assessing the needs of vulnerable people. CLICK HERE

Wirral Leaks notes such “short cuts” usually lead to a slippery slope and that the Globe report rightly referenced the notorious and heinous 4 week delay policy which was based on the premise that costs could be cut by denying meeting the needs of vulnerable people’s legally assessed needs for at least 4 weeks in the hope that – in the words of social work “professional” – that the people they were paid to support might die in the meantime and thus save ASS a few quid.

But then we need to remember that ASS undermined the professional status of their social workers by employing non-qualified staff to undertake assessments and who are therefore less likely to question such unlawful practice. Is it any wonder that it has been reported to us that one of these social work subs (as in substandard) recently asked a shocked and appalled carer how long their child had had Downs Syndrome! Yes folks that is what currently passes for social care assessment on Wirral and again is it any wonder that ASS are having to pay social workers extra money so they can retain the qualified staff who have been leaving in droves to spare themselves the soul-destroying,money-saving monotony which is so far removed from why came into social care in the first place.

Therefore can we suggest that before the prospective Health Secretary sees fit to share his future vision of health and social care on Wirral he needs to understand what is really going on locally and not what he’s told by local politicians and high -ranking officials……………somebody needs to whisper these 3 little words into Mr.Burnham’s ear : “Mid -Staffordshire Hospital.”

Following our last Election Special featuring Wirral’s veteran political Svengali Frankenfield and in the interest of political balance Wirral Leaks will this week feature Wirral West MP Ms Esther McVey ( aka McVague,McVile etc;) – who is very much the cheese(cake) to his chalk.

Let’s face it we’d be wasting our time profiling Wallasey MP Angela The Eagle (Hasn’t Landed on Wirral) and Wirral South MP Alison McGormless.They are to the local political scene what Her Ladyship is to rugby league.

For example McGormless – clearly desperate for some pre-election press coverage – recently joined a hapless postman on his round to see what he does…and she found out he posts letters …..and er,sometimes delivers parcels.
McGormless was able to reassure us that during this selfless fact-finding mission the weather was “quite good”. Phew!……the parents and carers of Lyndale School currently facing closure and which sits in her constituency will sleep well tonight knowing their MP has avoided getting wetter than she already is during the course of a puerile PR stunt.

The difference in profiling the fragrant Ms.McVague is that we are not in a position to deconstruct her personal political ideology which is set out in a series of publications – all we can draw upon is : “If Chloe Can …” her seminal feminist work or “career recipe book”/”bookazine” as she likes to call it .

Put it this way – Simone De Beauvoir it ain’t.

The message of the “bookazine” (that’s a neologism we hope doesn’t make the Oxford English Dictionary) is of course simple and direct: “If Chloe Can….” you can too! Flicking through this literary masterpiece this basically means you can grow up to be another ” Duffy” – remember her? – just follow your dreams,reach for the stars or alternatively face benefit sanctions. SEE HERE

The Esther Bunny

And if Ms McVague isn’t the living embodiment of this credo then we don’t know who is…… however she appears to us to represent what happens when limited talent meets limitless ambition. Where the X-Factor meets welfare reform.

Witness the toe-curling disregard of accepted protocol as she announces on the cutting edge political arena that is the TV programme “Loose Women” that she harbours the ambition to be Prime Minister. Good luck with that one Esther – but we think that as an ex-TV presenter you’re destined to be forever associated with the showbizzy ,shouty end of politics (or should that be screechy end of politics) – an Anne Widdecombe in waiting – an end of the pier politician – an Edwina Currie who’s cashed her chips. Rather than dream of being PM we think you should follow your destiny ……. straight to reality TV – which is where you will find your natural metier – a new career being voted out rather than being voted in.

Having said all that McVague does seem to have a particular knack of annoying people – recently having been variously described by fellow politicians as “Hard Hearted Hannah” and as a “Washing Machine” (the latter by Speaker of the House John Bercow – who clearly thinks that McVague is more irritating than his wife Sally which I’m sure you’ll agree is quite an achievement ) .

Indeed as her Wirral West constituency has been identified as a target seat by Labour at the next General Election McVague has been under particular fire lately with visits from heavyweights (that’ll be mainly you Tom Watson) and Harriet Harperson in her pink “Woman to Woman” van. “Dearie me…..” sighed Her Ladyship “I’ve heard of a political vehicle but this sounds like a Sapphic Love Bus”. McVague even claims that during a recent visit Labour MP John McDonnell called on West Wirral voters to ” lynch the bitch” !

Can you imagine if a political opponent had called for Frankenfield to be lynched – it would need a catering size pack of smelling salts to bring him round and there’d be outraged cries about dangerous political subversives and endless articles about how it was not very nice to say rude and nasty things about such a lovely man.

Even this week there was a “Sack McVey” rally held in Hoylake or was it Heswall ? (all 14 protestors and 1 dog didn’t seem to know)

This demo was organised by local TUC firebrand Alec McFuckup and coincided with the release of a strongly worded song “Sack Esther McVey” which includes the touching refrain “The wicked witch of the Wirral’s had her day” .

Considering the animosity that McVague seems to engender in Labour politicians you’d think that Frankenfield would be particularly keen to have a few sly digs – but he’s curiously silent on the subject of McVague. Could it be he has a sneaking admiration for someone so closely associated with policies which he himself espoused in his magnum opus Making Welfare Work (1995). Someone in the know recently described this publication as the blueprint for Iain Duncan Smith’s destruction of the welfare state – check out the Green Paper which Field authored in 1998 if you don’t believe us.

However it seems to us that The Right (Dis)honourable McVague will hitch her rising star to any cause or any policy if it raises her profile. Who remembers that it wasn’t long after she raised the damning Independent Review about Wirral Council at Prime Ministers Questions in February 2012 where she raised concerns about overcharging and intimidation of disabled people that soon thereafter she was appointed Minister for the Disabled before swiftly being promoted to the Department of Employment to work with Duncan-Smith.

It is not known what Minister was tasked by David Cameron to look at the matters raised by McVague and what did that Minister tasked with addressing McVague’s concerns do about her plea that “those responsible be brought to account and never work in Adult Social Services ever again”.

Did McVague ever follow it up or was it just a case of making a name for herself and pleasing her political masters by having a pop at a Labour-controlled Council and then forgetting about it?

Sadly those in the know inform us that because of the redactions in the report it would have been impossible to identify the perpetrators of abuse and consequently it seems that some people who should indeed never work in social care have since gone on to manage care homes on Wirral – care homes where unsurprisingly concerns have been raised about further neglect and abuse of vulnerable people.

We would suggest that the recent spate of care home scandals that have been reported in the local press are not unrelated to the fact that certain abusers were never “brought to account”.

But hey why should that concern McVague as she continues her political ascent ?
Whether that ascent continues following the General Election we shall see – but whatever the outcome we suspect that McVague will simply pick up a copy of “If Chloe Can..” and continue her relentless pursuit of power…..

Formerly known as the place where complacent Labour politicians could rely on the unquestioning support of local residents (well the few who voted that is)

However it would appear that times have changed and Wirral Leaks is particularly pleased to see the disenfranchised and disillusioned finally find their voice over plans for the former Rock Ferry High School site at a public meeting at Highfield Church (or should that be High-handed Field Church?)

Recent discussions on future proposals for the use of the site culminated in a meeting last week where – as the world and her husband now know – that veteran Birkenhead MP Frank Field was suddenly taken ill. However Frankenfield ‘s subsequent response to the unfortunate incident clearly indicate to us something that we have long believed at Leaky Towers and that Frankenfield has really,really lost the plot this time.

We have documented the man’s wild conspiracy theories on here for some time – from the Wirral highways robbery scandal that seemingly never was, to the time he claimed on Radio Merseyside that mysterious members of the public were conspiring to bring certain parts of Wirral Council down by making an excessive number of Freedom of Information requests ( this wayward allegation was later dismissed by the Information Commissioners Office – the body responsible for monitoring FOI requests ) ,to his sardonic remarks about this very blog at a Birkenhead Constituency Committee meeting – but he really has excelled himself this time. There was always a possibility he would resort to conspiracies about Little Green Men taking over the world but we never expected this……

Witness his aggrieved wailings about Green Party members in the aftermath of the public meeting described above and where we understand there was 1 Green Party member present.Frankenfield used the platform of his Wirral “News” column to bleat:

“A small number of people are carrying out political thuggery in a way I haven’t witnessed since the Trotskyist Miltant Tendency tried to infiltrate the Labour Party thirty years ago.”

It would be easy to dismiss these wild-eyed statements if it wasn’t for the fact that the local media are still in thrall to Field and despite – as far as we know ,that no journalist who has written about the meeting actually attended it , the press coverage of the incident at Highfield Church has been as unbalanced as the man himself.

“There were five of them [agitators at the meeting]. They dot themselves about the hall to make out this is a huge uprising. They do the same sort of appalling things as the Trots, which is these are people who are going to rat on you so you are set up to fail.”

Paranoid Android much?

Meanwhile in the same report friend,confidante,Rock (or should that be Rocky) Ferry councillor and Wirral Council social care failure Matron McLaughlin chipped in that events at the meeting were “orchestrated” by about 5 agitators ( oh do get your stories straight people).

What isn’t reported is that members of the audience had been described as “a mean spirited little group of people” in an email sent by Frankenfield to McLaughlin and that another Rock Ferry councillor Chris “Meany” Meaden called them “horrible people” at the meeting. And before you can say Her Ladyship and I can talk when it comes to pejorative comments can we remind our readers that we are not elected representatives meant to serve their constituents and represent their best interests.

Perhaps the most disturbing report we have of the meeting (besides the police presence ) was the comment from McLaughlin that if local residents wanted to visit a green space perhaps they could use public transport and visit a park!.
Coming from a Councillor who’s taxi bill is the largest in Wirral Council and paid for by the people she was treating so contemptuously is a comment that reeks of (taxi) rank hypocrisy!

However having said all that it’s not that the “horrible people” of Leaky Towers are unsympathetic to Mr.Field’s health concerns – quite the opposite – we think that for the good of his health and the well being of his constituency he needs to retire as soon as possible………

Just to follow up our NO MORAL AUTHORITY story earlier on this week there’s been some magnificent work undertaken by John Brace on his blog HERE

Here we find details of payments ( previously hidden from public view) for taxi rides exclusively for Labour councillors who are doing their bit in the name of austerity by seemingly hopping into a cab if it looks likely there’s going to be a spot of rain.

Top of the league table for the year 2013-14 was none other than the Comeback Queen herself – Matron McLaughlin with a whopping £755.30 taxi bill (runner -up in running up a bill is Cllr Pat “What a Packet” Hackett with a measly £700)……

In consideration of such a hefty private hire perk we’re left speculating here at Leaky Towers as to whether McLaughlinallthewaytothebank doesn’t drive (and if so – why is this Council tax payers problem ? ) or perhaps it means she, very sensibly, can safely have a tipple at functions or maybe she makes mercy dash deliveries to Wirral’s burgeoning foodbanks from the comfort of her own personal black cab or is it because of her big tips???

What we also want to know is whether a holier-than-thou councillor ( surprisingly not on Brace’s Taxi Rank ) has renounced his cab voucher handouts to his drinking buddies in the Brighton Hotel pub opposite the Town Hall.
How public-spirited some of our councillors can be!…………..

Forgive us for being cynical here at Leaky Towers but where is this growth exactly ? – call centres? , former council services which have been outsourced ? consultancy firms – it’s got to be consultancy firms the amount of money Wirral Council spends on them! Business growth is certainly not yet apparent on Wirral Waters and the much trumpeted golf resort non-starter has finally been declared unplayable and left in the rough. In our experience the only area of growth on Wirral that we can identify are foodbanks.

That’s hardly surprising as my goodness our Wirral politicians love those foodbanks don’t they ?- it’s a pity some of them have never been reliant on one.Let’s face it having to live off tins of spaghetti hoops and spam might make them focus their minds before they issue their next caring,sharing soundbite

In the blue corner we have Esther McVague extolling the virtues of foodbanks and how right it is that people should live within their means even if that means reliving the days of the soup kitchen. And in the red corner we have Foodbank Frank – who laughably was recently identified as a Hero of the Year for 2014 in the tabloid blog Huffington Post. What for ? – you may ask – for services to breathtaking cynicism and political manipulation? Why no – it was for his anti-poverty stance. Which I’m sure you agree is so,so brave because there are so many people are pro-poverty aren’t they? It seems to us that Frankenfield’s anti-poverty stance means as long as him and his chums don’t have to experience poverty the feckless, the wreckless and the less than well connected are on their own.

There have been more foodbank frolics with Foulkesy thanking Wirral council staff for donating generously to this year’s Foodbank appeal in his Mayor’s Diary in the Wirral “News” which made us think a) does he still use crayons to write his column and b) will Wirral Council staff who donated generously end up eating their own spaghetti hoops and spam found at the back of the cupboard when they too are made redundant?……….

This week Wirral Council agreed to £2.5 million worth of cuts (disguised as “budget savings) to local services. Despite the fact that the “refreshed” Corporate Plan gave “protecting the vulnerable ” top billing it’s clear from where the axe fell that this claim is nothing more than a miserable lie. It is clear that the vast majority of the cuts were aimed at vulnerable people – namely respite services for disabled adults and children and the scrapping of Council Tax discount to pensioners over 70.

The Council meeting where these cuts were discussed appears to be a rather tense affair judging by the footage on John Brace’s blog

Mayor Foulkes seemed particularly tetchy telling lone Green Councillor Pat “Green Not Mean” Cleary that he couldn’t address Council because he didn’t have a seconder (which is a bit difficult when you’re on your own) : ” I’ve made the decision.Sit down….” he yelled before going on to tell another Green ,by name if not by nature,this being the Tory leader Jefferson, to : ” Sit down. I’m speaking…” .

Foulkesy then went on to relent ” as it was Christmas” and obviously regretted the decision as Cllr Cleary’s impassioned anti-austerity speech drew rapturous applause from the public gallery. ” I won’t be ambushed again” pouted the titty-lipped tinpot dictator.

It’s clear from the public’s reaction the Green Party is cultivating a groundswell of support (geddit?) and long may it continue. Anything that disrupts the political hegemony which has blighted Wirral for far too long is alright by us at Leaky Towers.

There was another speech of note from Cllr Janette ” Millie Tant” Williamson who railed against the coalition government and their policies which was very much in the Labour tradition of blaming the government for decisions made by Wirral Council. What is always missing from the ” it’s all central government’s fault” default position is the fact that the coalition government did NOT dictate to Wirral Council how to implement the Bedroom Tax or their increasingly reprehensible approach to Council Tax discounts and exemptions or their continual scapegoating of disabled people – talking of which will this inglorious history continue tonight when Cabinet finally decides the fate of Lyndale School?

What’s more is Cllr.Williamson aware of the national Labour Party’s stance on austerity?
It is clear from policy statements made by Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls that if Labour succeed in getting into power following the next General Election then Labour have promised yet more austerity measures.

Following our earlier story about the beano in Reno Verity has been doing some further research into other towns who have had the dubious honour of being twinned with Wirral. Apparently Wirral has been rather wanton with it’s unique charms and has previously wooed (in no particular order) Gennevilliers (France) ,Lorient (France) ,Latina (Italy) and Midland (Texas ,USA not the Black Country).
Then of course there was the Eurowirral office in Brussels which achieved er, well nothing much at all really.

As we’ve said before it seems to us at Leaky Towers that never has so much public money been spent on air miles by so many globetrotting councillors and officers to achieve so very little………

Of course the Twin Town debate is something that has concerned the great and the ghoul of Wirral for sometime.
Leaky Towers have always maintained we should be twinned with Jericho in recognition of our local whistleblowing community whilst Frankenfield seems to think that Birkenhead should be twinned with Beirut!.

However it seems to us that Wirral is behaving like a desperate divorcee on a dating website – posting flattering pictures to prospective partners in the hope of finding true love and salvation. The Reno hook-up seems particularly dodgy – apparently the fact that “The Chamber of Commerce had a contact over in Reno with a guy who used to work in Liverpool in the video gaming industry….” was enough for the Wirral posse to metaphorically put on the lippy ,reach for the Wonderbra and fly down to Reno on a wing and a prayer.

Finally we’d particularly love to know what clean living local Councillor Paul “Danceaway” Doughty thinks about twinning with Reno – famous for gambling and quickie divorces.

Let’s just hope if we get a delegation from Reno visiting that Wirral tops up the Botox to prevent “The Biggest Little City in The World” seeking a quickie divorce…….